Candidates for the 9th Congressional District

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In This week’s Sunday Journal, we interview the candidates for Congressman for Massachusetts’ Ninth Congressional District, which includes the Cape and Islands, as well as the South Shore and South Coast.

US Congressman William Keating (D-Bourne) is seeking reelection in Massachusetts Ninth Congressional District. He is being challenged by four Republicans. The Republicans will battle it out in the primary election on September 9. The winner of the primary will face Keating in the general election on November 4.

US Congressman William Keating

Keating was elected to Congress in 2010. He had been the District Attorney in Norfolk County and had, earlier in his career, served in the state senate and as a state representative.

Born in Norwood, he is the grandson of Irish immigrants. His father was a police officer and then veterans’ service agent. Keating attended Boston College where he received his B.A. and Masters in Business Administration. To put himself through college and his graduate program, he worked as a letter carrier for the United States Postal Service.

In 1977, at the age of 23, Keating was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives. While serving in the State House, he entered Suffolk University Law School and became a member of the state bar in 1985. The same year, he began serving in the Massachusetts State Senate, where he served as Senate Chairman of the Joint Committee on the Judiciary, the Joint Committee on Public Safety, and the Joint Committee on Taxation, respectively. He also served as the Senate Chairman of the standing Committee on Steering and Policy.

Bill was then elected to be Norfolk District Attorney, a position he held from 1999 until his election to Congress.

In Congress, he sits on the following Congressional committees:

House Committee on Foreign Affairs where he is a ranking member on the subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia and Emerging Threats; and a member on the subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific.

House Committee on Homeland Security where he is a member on the subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence and a member on the Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection and Security Technologies.

Here is a 10-minute interview with US Congressman William Keating:

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The four Republicans in the primary for Ninth Congressional District are Dan Shores, John Chapman, Mark Alliegro, and Vince Cogliano Jr.

Dan Shores

Attorney Dan Shores of Sandwich is a Republican candidate running for Congress. According to Shores’s biography, he grew up in Carver. His father operated a logging company and Shores’ early jobs were weeding cranberry bogs and working as a logger. He went on to study engineering, direct capital campaigns, and study law, which he financed himself. He is a graduate of the University of New Hampshire and Georgetown University Law Center.

Here is a 10-minute interview with Dan Shores:

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John Chapman

Attorney John Chapman of Brookline and Chatham is running for Congress as a Republican in the Ninth District. Chapman has, according to biographical information he provided, worked in the Reagan White House where he served as an aide in the Counsel’s Office, and in Massachusetts state government, where he was an agency commissioner and undersecretary of economic development.

He worked his way through college, graduating with a B.A. in political science from Kenyon College and a J.D. from Suffolk University Law School.

Here is a 10-minute interview with John Chapman:

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Congressional candidate Mark Alliegro of Falmouth is running in the Republican primary for the Ninth District. He is a scientist, researcher and educator. He is a senior scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole and a professor of molecular biology, cellular biology and biochemistry at Brown University.

Mark Alliegro

He holds a bachelor’s of science from Fairleigh Dickinson University, a master’s of science in marine science from the University of Maryland, and a Ph.D. in anatomy and cell biology from SUNY, Buffalo.

He has worked as program director of molecular and cellular biosciences at National Science Foundation and as instructor of medical histology at Harvard Medical School. He was a member of the New Orleans Public School Partnership for Education, was named Louisiana School Volunteer of the Year in 2000, volunteered at Hospice Care of Louisiana, and is currently a Falmouth Town Meeting Member.

Here is a 10-minute interview with Mark Alliegro:

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Businessman Vincent Cogliano Jr. of Pembroke is running in the Republican primary for Congress in Massachusetts’ Ninth Congressional District. According to biographical information he provided, Cogliano lives on his family farm with his 98-year old father where they grow and sell Christmas trees. He served in the US Army for three years and then attended Bloomfield College on the GI bill.

His business career has seen him work as a radio and television broadcaster as well as a corporate trainer teaching management classes at a major corporation. He served as a Pembroke selectman from 1996 – 2002. He has been Chairman of the Plymouth County GOP for more than six years.